Street Survivors

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Street Survivors
Street Survivors cover
Studio album by Lynyrd Skynyrd
Released October 17, 1977
Recorded Criteria Studios, Miami, Florida; Studio One, Doraville, Georgia; Muscle Shoals Sound Studios, Muscle Shoals, Alabama
Genre Southern Rock
Length 35:26
Label MCA Records
Producer Tom Dowd, Jimmy Johnson & Tim Smith (track 3)
Professional reviews

All Music Guide 4.5/5 stars link

Lynyrd Skynyrd chronology
One More From the Road
(1976)
Street Survivors
(1977)
Skynyrd's First And... Last
(1978)
Original cover
The original and current cover of Street Survivors
The original and current cover of Street Survivors

Street Survivors is the fifth and final studio album by southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd (the original Lynyrd Skynyrd) released on October 17 1977. Three days after the album's release, on October 20, 1977, the band's chartered airplane crashed in route to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, killing the pilot and some band members, including lead singer and songwriter Ronnie Van Zant and guitarist/singer/songwriter Steve Gaines, and severely injuring most who survived the crash.

Perhaps partially as a result of the attention garnered by the tragedy, the album and the lead single "What's Your Name" and "That Smell" did quite well on the charts, with "What's Your Name" peaking at #13. After an extensive recovery process, the surviving original band members ultimately decided to disband Lynyrd Skynyrd. In the early 1980's, two derivative bands, The Rossington-Collins Band and the Allen Collins Band, rose from the figurative ashes of this southern rock tragedy to achieve moderate and minimal success, respectively.

The original pressing of the cover of Street Survivors had a photograph of the band standing in flames. Eerily, in the original cover, Gaines' eyes were closed and his head appears to be surrounded by flames. The cover was changed to an alternate photo with an all-black background in respect of the deceased. Thirty years later, the original "flames" cover was restored, while the alternate cover serves as the back of the case. Interestingly, lead singer Van Zant is wearing a t-shirt depicting Neil Young's album Tonight's the Night in both photographs.

The album was actually recorded twice. Once with Tom Dowd at the helm at Criteria Studios in Florida, and them later they re-recorded it for the final release at Studio One in Georgia 5 months later. In March 2008, the album was re-issued with these alternate versions of most of the songs. Differences are minor on some songs, with the major difference being a much slower & extended earlier version of "That Smell." Also included is two songs recorded for, but not included on the original album, "Georgia Peaches," and "Sweet Little Missy," with the latter being included twice, in demo and final form. Also included is a version of "Honky Tonk Night Time Man," with Ronnie's alternate autobiographical vocal take, entitled "Jacksonville Kid," which is believed to be the last vocal take he ever recorded in a studio.

The song "One More Time" was added to the album, presumably after it was decided to drop one of the two tracks above, however, this song is the original recording from their 1971 Muscle Shoals demo, it was not re-recorded for this album (which is why it features Ed King, Greg Walker and Ricky Medlocke in place of Steve Gaines, Leon Wilkeson and Artimus Pyle).

[edit] Track listing

  1. "What's Your Name" (Rossington, Van Zant) – 3:30
  2. "That Smell" (Collins, Van Zant) – 5:47
  3. "One More Time" (Rossington, Van Zant) – 5:03
  4. "I Know A Little" (Gaines) – 3:26
  5. "You Got That Right" (Gaines, Van Zant) – 3:44
  6. "I Never Dreamed" (Gaines, Van Zant) – 5:21
  7. "Honky Tonk Night Time Man" (Haggard) – 3:59
  8. "Ain't No Good Life" (Gaines) – 4:36

[edit] Bonus tracks on 30th Anniversary edition

  1. "What's Your Name (Original Version)"
  2. "That Smell (Original Version)"
  3. "You Got That Right (Original Version)"
  4. "I Never Dreamed (Original Version)"
  5. "Georgia Peaches"
  6. "Sweet Little Missy (Original Version)"
  7. "Sweet Little Missy (Demo)"
  8. "Ain't No Good Life (Original Version)"
  9. "That Smell (Complete Original Version)"
  10. "Jacksonville Kid"
  11. "You Got That Right (Live)"
  12. "That Smell (Live)"
  13. "Ain't No Good Life (Live)"
  14. "What's Your Name (Live)"

[edit] Personnel

Back-up vocals on "That Smell": The Honkettes (Cassie Gaines, Jo Billingsley, Leslie Hawkins).

Musicians on "One More Time": Ronnie Van Zant, vocals; Allen Collins, guitar; Gary Rossington, guitar; Ed King, guitar; Greg Walker, bass; Rick Medlock, drums & back-up vocals; Tim Smith & Leslie Hawkins, back-up vocals.

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